Pregnancy II
by JanSuch
Summary: Helen's pregnancy progresses; she and Nikola still don't quite see eye to eye. One shot continuation of previous stories.


Nikola stood with his arms crossed in front of the Sanctuary gate and said "No, absolutely not!"

Helen, Will, and Henry were in front of him dressed in heavy clothing topped by anoraks and covered in packs and straps holding weapons and gear.

Helen sighed and said "Nikola, get out of the way. If you've been paying any attention at all in my staff meetings you know we need to capture ice worms for the medicinal properties of their venom, which according to Praxian records has a number of uses. And now that you've added a gate in Antarctica this is the perfect time to go get one."

Nikola shook his head slowly. "Fine, as long as you leave my son here."

"Your daughter is perfectly safe where she is for another four months." Helen's pregnancy was progressing nicely, but she wasn't about to spend her time sitting around in spite of her expanding figure when there was work to be done.

"Just send the kids. How hard can it be to catch an ice worm?"

"It's not as easy as you think and they have no experience with the creatures. Now get out of the way before I find it necessary to remove you from our path."

Will and Henry exchanged glances, eyes big. Will was interested in what would happen if the two of them tangled, while Henry was more worried about the outcome; whoever won the other would be in a snit for days if not weeks, and either way that wouldn't be good for him since Magnus was his boss and Tesla was his lab partner.

"You know, I'm sorry I even put a gate at McMurdo Station. I should have known you had an ulterior motive for asking me to put a gate on every continent."

Helen stepped forward. "Stop stalling Nikola and move aside."

"At least let me come with you."

That startled her. "You? In Antarctica? You're not serious."

Nikola made a pained expression and said "Yes, if I can't stop you then at least I might be able to protect my son."

"Fine. We'll be dropping off supplies at the station and then heading out to Mount Erebus; but one condition. You are not to hover over me or throw yourself protectively in front of me at any time. I have a job to do and you will not interfere. Do I have your word?"

Nikola gestured wildly "Then what's the point of my going?"

"I don't know" Helen said and pushed him aside without any resistance. She hit the button on her gate controller marked by a snowflake and the gate light changed. She walked through followed by her team.

"Dammit" Nikola said, and raced out of the room to get warmer clothing. Being a vampire he didn't need a lot of gear, but even in summer the Antarctic cold would be extremely uncomfortable and he had no idea how long she would pursue this loony idea.

He was back in five minutes dressed in an odd assortment of clothing. He'd put on a heavier pair of pants over his suit pants, wool socks, and a pullover sweater and fleece jacket on top of his suit jacket. Nikola was wearing heavy insulated boots, a knit hat and an anorak with both gloves and mittens stuffed in the pockets, goggles hanging loosely around his neck. His shoes, extra clothes, units of blood and his medication had gone into a knapsack with a blanket, a couple of towels wrapped around bottles of wine, and anything else lying around he thought might be useful. He'd grabbed the heaviest sleeping bag he could see and some small tools and a knife. Whatever, he was packing more for comfort than survival.

He opened the gate, tuned it to the new gate and plunged through. The receiving gate was in the back of a storeroom and he charged through it and into the station proper until he spotted the Sanctuary team getting ready to exit the station. They'd shed some of their gear; extra food most likely, and unpacked a couple of folded up cages that were now strapped to the men's packs. Nikola pretended he hadn't been hurrying at all and strolled over to them.

"So where exactly are we going?"

Will answered as they went outside. "The ice caves near Mount Erebus. According to the literature, there's a region near the volcano with temperatures the ice worms favor and access to the ocean under the ice."

Nikola adjusted his goggles. "So they wiggle over toward the nice warm volcano in the winter and away from it in the summer?"

"Something like that" Helen answered drily. She led the way to a waiting helicopter, Will next to her with Henry and Nikola behind them. Nikola looked at Henry's armament.

Nikola asked "So these things are dangerous?"

Henry just shook his head. "Dude, don't you listen at all in the meetings?"

"Of course I do, but only when the topic is relevant. So give me the short course."

"They're kind of like fat white snakes; lots of blubber to keep them warm. They can grow up to thirty feet long and feed on fish, penguins, stray people, whatever. Bite is toxic . . ."

Nikola interrupted "What kind of toxin?"

"Uh . . ."

Helen shouted back over her shoulder as the helicopter took off "Nerve toxin Nikola, very fast acting. And I doubt you're immune so be careful."

"Okay. I take it we're after small ones."

Henry took up the lecture again. "Yeah, nobody wants to wrestle with a big one. Hopefully we can scare up a couple of little ones, stun them, and get them into cages fast. Although no one has ever caught any before, so we don't really know if the stunners will work."

Nikola said thoughtfully "But if we're looking for baby ice worms, wouldn't mama be nearby? Or are they not very maternal?"

"No idea" Helen called back cheerfully.

"Of course" Nikola said resignedly. "Helen, you haven't changed in the last hundred years or two, always just throwing yourself headlong into whatever."

"It's a quick way to learn, Nikola."

"It's a dangerous way to learn, Helen."

"Since when did you get so cautious?"

Nikola didn't bother to answer; she knew very well why he currently preferred caution. They soon arrived at Fang Glacier Camp. Nikola was appalled; it was nothing but a row of tents.

"We're staying in tents?" he asked. "You must be kidding."

They landed and everyone exited. Helen handed Nikola a water bottle and said "We'll be here over night to let our bodies adjust to the altitude. We have to go up before we go down. Stay hydrated, Nikola, and anything you don't want to freeze keep in your sleeping bag with you."

Well he didn't mind sleeping with his wine, and since the alcohol didn't affect him it wasn't much different than drinking water, at least to a vampire. But he rationed the wine anyway; he had no idea when he would get any more. This was going to take longer than he thought; maybe he should have paid more attention in Helen's staff meetings, but she covered so many topics all over the world and most of it was just boring stuff that had nothing to do with him.

In the morning they took another helicopter to Erebus hut. It was only a small building and a shed, but Nikola was pleased to find it had heat and electricity at least. But he'd had no idea this was going to be such an extended expedition.

They dumped all their supplies there and went on with just water and their worm-catching gear. Nikola muttering "What a crappy hotel" as they went back out into the cold.

"So what are we looking for, ice worm holes or something?" he asked more loudly.

"Eventually" Henry answered. The HAP was more willing to make up for Nikola's lack of attention in meetings than the others. "We're going down into the ice caves, and then we look for ice worm holes. The caves change as the ice melts and reforms so reports of odd holes in one place don't mean the worms will still be there, or even the place will still be there, see?"

They went down into one of the ice towers formed by gases that melted the ice which rose as a vapor and then reformed, building hollow towers. The floor of the cave below was forty feet down. Helen, Will, and Henry went down on ropes, Nikola just jumped since he hadn't thought to bring rope.

The caves themselves were a little warmer than the outer air. Helen directed "Stay together, look for small bores or sheered edges." She led the way, angling away from the volcano.

He hadn't expected the area of the caves to be very large, but as she led them down deeper he realized they were only partly in ice caves, there were also lava tubes and other rock formations. Where were the dratted worms?

Nikola lagged behind, wondering why he'd come. It had been a protective impulse, he understood that, but he wasn't doing any good trailing along with the others. The team had slowed down ahead and he caught up with Henry at the edge of a steep ice slope. Helen and Will were working their way down two ropes and Nikola could hear water lapping below.

Nikola decided an uncontrolled slide would be a bad idea and used a rope alongside Henry. At the bottom was a huge ice cave over an underground lake or perhaps a cut-off part of the ocean. In any case, the ice around the edge was riddled with holes and tunnels. The ice worm lair at last.

So where were the worms? Just then something very large and white broke the surface of the water briefly, just a rolling mass that dropped down under the water again. Will broke the silence.

"Let's check out some of the smaller holes and get out of here" he said uneasily.

Helen nodded and added "Stay away from the water. If you get wet you'll freeze before we get back to the hut."

They unpacked and set up the two folding cages. Henry extracted two telescoping hooked probes from his pack and handed one to Will. Everyone except Nikola had a stunner in hand while the HAP and the human carefully approached two of the smallest holes and probed gently within.

"Got one!" Henry exclaimed and Will came over and they both tried to use the probes to pry the worm out of its hole. It suddenly shot out and Helen fired at the snarling white streak as it headed for the water. All three stunners fired but the six foot worm barely slowed down and disappeared with hardly a ripple.

Henry said "Wow that thing was ugly. Well that didn't work. What else do you want to try?"

Nikola agreed with him on the ugly part. The front of the worm had various pale red and yellow lumps that were likely sensory organs surrounding a round mouth that opened like a sphincter and displayed rows of sharp inward-slanted teeth.

"Let's try the hooks. The skin appears to be so tough I don't think we'll cause one much harm by hooking it" Helen said. "I'll use a stunner on it while you hold it with the hooks and it should be more manageable."

"All right, so we try to hook one and drag it out, you stun it and we get it into the cage" Will summarized as he approached another small hole.

"Yeah, but we both have to have it hooked so we can hold it between us and try to control it" added Henry.

Nikola edged closer to Helen but stayed behind her. This wasn't going well so far and he intended to be ready to protect her regardless of what he'd promised.

Three holes later Will and Henry had located another worm with a gentle poke. Will counted "One, two, three!" and they both tried to dig their hooks into the creature.

They succeeded and dragged out a fighting wiggling seven foot worm; it was stronger than both men and they were being dragged even with the worm partly off the ground. It was twisting the hooks in their grasp, making it hard to get leverage on it. Helen moved forward so she wouldn't hit her team and poured stun shots into the creature.

The twisting slowed, but one hook came out of its hide, leaving Will holding on as hard as he could while Henry tried to get his hook back into the worm. But it was focused on Will now and his pole and trying to reach him with its open maw; he tried to hold on and back up at the same time and lost his grip on his pole as he staggered back and suddenly sat down.

Henry got his hook into the very back of the worm and kept it from going forward. Helen shot it a couple of more times and Nikola vamped and circled quickly, grabbing the dropped hook that was still attached near the front of the worm. The ice worm was beginning to weaken and having one hook near the front and one near the back allowed them to straighten it out and prevent it from twisting.

Will scrambled up and grabbed one of the cages and approached with it toward the worm's head. Nikola shoved the butt of his pole through the cage's mouth and out a side air hole while he held on with one hand dangerously close to the snapping mouth. As soon as the end of the pole appeared outside the side of the cage he shifted his grip to the exposed pole butt and pulled the worm at least partly in while Henry pushed from behind.

Will closed the door on the end of Henry's pole. Henry twisted his pole until it unhooked from the worm and slid it out. Will slammed the door the last couple of inches and locked it. One worm captured!

Nikola unhooked his pole and slid it out through the air hole. All three men were breathing heavily and just stood still and rested for a moment. Nikola devamped.

"Do we really need two?" Will asked.

"I'm afraid so" Helen replied. "And we could use more. The volume of venom they produce is small. If we're lucky we will get a male and a female and be able to breed them, but even with two the same sex we'll be able to proceed to work with the venom, as soon as we figure out how to milk them of course."

Will reached for his pole but Nikola moved it away and shook his head. "You handle the cage; this is going to require brute strength, Junior, and Heinrich and I are the strongest."

"Hey I tripped, and who says you're stronger than me?"

"Will, let it go" Helen said. Nikola gave him an insolent grin.

Will just shrugged and said "Fine. You two recovered now?"

Before either could reply there was a heavy scraping sound from one of the largest tunnels. Everyone froze as the sound grew nearer and a huge ice worm poked its head out. It paused only a moment then wiggled out, down the bare rock at the edge of the water, and slithered in.

The team resumed breathing. But the captured ice worm started moving around in the cage more and made a plaintive chirping sound. It was recovering from the stuns.

"We gotta move" Henry said, "Before Mom shows up." No one disagreed and he and Nikola started probing more small holes. The problem was they were running out of the smallest bores near them; they either needed to move away from the entrance or try for a larger worm.

Helen saw their hesitation and said "Try down that way where the large worm just left. We're not going to be able to handle anything bigger than what we just captured."

With nods the two men moved quickly in the direction indicated, Will following with the cage.

Probing a small hole, Nikola suddenly tensed and started struggling. "Henry, here!" he called.

"You're not supposed to just grab one, you're supposed to wait for me" Henry scolded as he hurried over. The worm was emerging, fighting and twisting against the hook Nikola had in it near the head. Henry got his hook in the middle of the worm and the two men tried to control it while Helen moved to get a clear shot.

The worm's tail swept around and took Henry's feet out from under him. He still had his pole but from the ground couldn't exert any force. The worm surged toward Helen who started firing; Nikola dug in and tried to control the beast by himself. He managed to stop its forward progress, but the worm whipped its tail again; Nikola leapt over it while Henry scrambled up. Helen got in one more shot, but only hit the ground next to it.

But the worm got Nikola on the return lash of its tail, knocking his feet out from under him. It surged toward Henry who tried to push it away with his pole and ended up unhooking it instead, leaving Nikola on the ground gamely trying to control the worm by himself. Helen fired twice more trying to stop the creature but even though she hit it the stun shots had little effect.

The worm spun and dragged the vampire toward the water. Henry scrambled after trying to hook the worm again, but Nikola was between Helen and the ice worm and she couldn't shoot. She moved to get behind the creature and nearly ran into Henry who wasn't paying any attention to her; he was focused on the worm.

The worm and Nikola both went into the frigid water as Henry hooked the tail and started trying to drag it back on land. The pause in motion gave Nikola time to get up and between them they managed to get it back out of the water, Nikola dripping. Helen pumped three more shots into the worm while Will approached the head with the cage.

Nikola tried to do what he had done the last time, sliding his pole through the cage to catch it on the other side and pull the worm in. But his pole was fastened farther back on the creature and when he moved his hand up toward the head the worm lunged and took Nikola's hand and arm halfway to the elbow into its mouth.

Nikola screamed "DAMMIT!" and jerked his arm out. His wet layers of clothing were shredded and blood ran down his hand but his hand was there at least. Will grabbed the end of the pole sticking out of the cage and pulled, Henry pulled, and Nikola grabbed the cage door with his good hand and closed it as Henry unhooked the worm. The vampire slammed home the lock and then cradled his injured extremity.

The other caged baby worm was chirping loudly now and a huge worm head rose out of the water. Helen rummaged in her pack, pulled out a hypodermic and plunged it into Nikola's exposed arm. He'd at least been able to heal enough to stop the bleeding.

"It's not specific to ice worm toxin, but it might help" she explained. Nikola said "Thanks", but he was looking paler than usual.

"Let's get out of here" Helen called. Henry and Will each picked up a cage while Nikola picked up the other hooked pole in his good hand. The four ran for the two ropes still hanging down the ice slide.

There was no way to climb carrying a cage, so the cages were tied to the ends of the ropes. Nikola and Henry had the two hooked poles and turned to face the large ice worm emerging from the water onto the rock while Helen and Will climbed. Helen was slower, the bulk of her belly interfering a little with her climbing ability.

Nikola tossed his pole hook first at the big worm, hitting it but that only slowed it momentarily. As soon as Will was far enough up the rope Nikola told Henry "Go! I've already been bitten and you haven't."

Henry tossed his pole at the worm too and started up the rope after Will. Nikola vamped, held his clawed hands up and advanced toward the worm, roaring loudly. The tactic worked, the worm stopped to consider with its tiny brain a small creature actually moving toward it.

All three of the others were at the top of the ice now; Helen called "Nicky, come on!"

Nikola turned and ran, the ice worm behind him starting forward again at the more normal prey reaction. Helen was pulling up one of the cages and Will and Henry had the other rope but were waiting for the vampire. Nikola devamped; holding on to a rope was easier without the claws. He leapt up, catching the rope with one hand well above the cage and walking up the ice while the other men pulled him up from above.

When everyone was at the top they moved back out of sight, coiling the ropes. Helen put two stun shots at close range into the captured worms to quiet them; both had started the loud chirping that was drawing the big ice worm.

"There's nothing to stop the others from coming up here after us, but they're not very bright. Without anything to draw them it's mostly out of sight, out of mind" she explained.

Nikola drew a gasping breath that drew her attention. Her head jerked toward him and she asked "Nikola? How are you doing?"

"Not good. Heart stopped, forcing breathing, can't control . . ." He staggered and fell, twitching.

"Get the ice worms back to the Erebrus hut; put them in the shed they don't tolerate excessive heat for a long period of time" Helen ordered while she knelt down next to Nikola.

"We can't just leave you . . ." Will began.

"Get towels and dry clothes for him and a blanket or something we can carry him in."

Henry said "Right" and grabbed one of the cages and started trotting back the way they came; Will only hesitated a moment and then did the same.

There was little else Helen could do about the nerve toxin, especially since Nikola's blood wasn't circulating; she couldn't find a pulse. All she could do was try to warm him up. His clothing crackled with ice as she stripped him, some areas of cloth frozen solid which made undressing him difficult.

She stripped off her own layers then, using a sweater and her blouse to dry him as well as she could. His socks and the inside of his boots were still dry so she put those back on him and shoved a couple of layers of jackets under him. Helen got on top of Nikola and pulled her anorak over them both. She was shivering by the time she finished, and alarmed that he still wasn't.

His body was cold and still beneath her; she needed to wake him up, get him to use his vampire abilities to keep him alive. Helen pinched his nose closed and put her mouth over his and breathed into him; she doubted pounding on his chest would help but she did her best to do some chest compressions. Lying on top of him made it awkward to say the least, and she had to lie at least partly on her side on him to accommodate her pregnancy which limited the amount of body contact and the warmth she could transfer to him.

But he didn't respond to her attempts at CPR. She kept up both the breathing and heart action; her breath would at least add a little warmth to his insides. What else could she do? It seemed like Henry and Will were taking a long time to get back, but Helen was aware her time sense was likely distorted by her anxiety.

There was one other thing she could try that wasn't in the books. She slid her hands down to his genitals and started some gentle massage. Nikola's eyes flickered and one corner of his mouth twitched upward. Helen felt his chest move beneath her.

"Kathy" he murmured.

Helen's eyes and mouth opened in shock and rage. Then Nikola opened his eyes and gave her an evil grin. "Just kidding. I knew it was you, your technique is superb and unique."

"You pig! How long have you been conscious?"

"I became fully aware about the time you climbed on top of me. I take it you sent the kids for help?"

"Yes, they should be back soon."

"So we're all alone in a long dark tunnel . . ."

Just then they heard footsteps approaching. Nikola said "Too bad. Their timing is rotten as usual."

"Not a moment too soon I'd say" Helen said, still a little peeved at him. Her hands were still "down there" and she gave him an unpleasant squeeze that made him jerk and wiped the smirk off of his face. Then she got up and started retrieving her dry clothing and dressing. By the time Henry and Will arrived she had on two layers and was working on a third, leaving Nikola in just his boots and clutching her anorak over himself.

Will said "Figures" when he saw Nikola awake and apparently fine. He dropped a sack of clothes by the vampire who quickly dressed.

"Kind of you boys to run and fetch me a change of clothing" Nikola said as Henry gathered up all the wet things and shoved them in the now-empty sack. Nikola's anorak was still unwearable so he picked up the pile of blankets Henry had brought and wrapped himself up in them. It wasn't really enough to keep out the cold, but he'd be fine if uncomfortable until they got back to the hut. Will helped Helen back into her anorak and they were ready to leave.

Back at the hut Helen checked on the ice worms in the shed; both had gone back to chirping, but there were no adults around to hear them. She put a couple of frozen fish through the air holes for them to snack on and they soon quieted.

In the hut Nikola had hung up all his wet clothes while hers were piled on the table. She hung her own up and used the hut radio to call for the helicopter to take them back to McMurdo station. It was too late for it to come today, but would arrive first thing in the morning.

Henry was heating up a big pot of beans and wieners for their dinner. Nikola felt a little guilty for fooling Helen, especially in her condition, so he unpacked his wine. He still had a bottle of red left; then he remembered she couldn't have any. But as a gesture of good will, he offered it to the men.

"I don't know what goes with wieners, red or white, but I finished the white so if you're willing to settle for the red I'll share" he offered. They had it in paper cups, and Helen, Will, and Henry dug into their beanie weenie while Nikola sucked down a unit of blood. He usually didn't eat in front of the kids, but there was nowhere else to go except outside. Nikola was pleased that they didn't react negatively to his feeding at the table with them, although neither looked at him very much while he was doing it. Maybe they were growing up a bit.

But dinner was at least convivial. Afterwards they were all tired enough to roll up in their sleeping bags until morning. In the morning they packed up everything including their trash and set the hut to rights for the next group. The helicopter took them directly to McMurdo Station and they went through to the Sanctuary.

Helen took blood samples from the ice worms and then they were released into a very cold habitat prepared for them in advance. She gave Nikola the job of figuring out how to extract venom from them safely, since even if he was bitten it wouldn't do more than be unpleasant and inconvenient for him.

That evening they conversed in her sitting room. As usual Nikola drank wine but Helen had herbal tea. She was still a little annoyed with him.

"So who exactly is Kathy?" Helen asked in an innocent tone of voice.

Nikola was wary. "There is no Kathy. I just made up a name."

"And yet you did choose a specific name; something must have made you think of it."

Nikola sighed. "Helen, I love you and nobody else. There's no Kathy, Susan, Isabelle or Peaches, just you."

"Peaches?"

"You want some?"

"No, I don't want anything, except perhaps to be able to trust you."

"Oh come on, you know me. You just felt so good crawling on top of me I didn't want it to stop so I pretended a little. I didn't commit a crime, I didn't betray you, I was just playing."

"I do know you Nikola, and your half-baked ideas."

"You're still mad? Do you want me to look at curtain fabric or something to make it up to you?"

"I want you to be honest with me . . . and, I'd like you there to hold my hand while our daughter is being born."

"Aargh. All right, all right. But in exchange, you don't go on any more missions until you can leave our child here. Deal?"

"I'm fine going on missions until the last couple of months."

"Helen, please."

Helen sighed. "All right, deal. It's rather sweet of you to worry."

"Just remember how sweet I am next time I annoy you. By the way, you do know that the father determines the sex of the child, don't you?"

"Yes, but not . . . wait, you're not saying that you actually have control over your sperm, do you? I find that hard to swallow, Nikola."

A sly smile slid over the vampire's face and Helen blushed and added "You know what I mean."

"Okay, no, I can't control my sperm at the genetic level, but I do want a son."

"You'll be disappointed if it's a girl?"

"No, especially if she looks like you. I can be happy spoiling a girl and if she happens to have my scientific genius . . . you don't object to a boy, do you?"

"Of course not Nikola, I'll love our child no matter what."

Nikola raised his glass. "No matter what, we love our baby and take care of him."

Helen raised her teacup and said "Her." They both drank.

A/N: Thank you epichlexi, DelusionNyassa, and Guest for your reviews on Pregnancy.


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